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Nintendo Space World
(as Shoshinkai) | founder_name = | last = | prev = | next = | participants = | attendance = | capacity = | area = | budget = | activity = | leader_name = | patron = | organized = | filing = | people = | member = | sponsor = | website = | footnotes = }} Nintendo Space World, formerly called , is a video game trade show which has been hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. It has been typified by the company's unveiling of new consoles or handhelds. Unlike most other video game trade events, Nintendo World is not held annually or at any other set interval; Nintendo usually makes a decision regarding whether to hold the show any time in the year. It has historically always taken place in Japan, either in Kyoto where Nintendo's headquarters are located, or at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba. After the most recent Space World show in 2001, the company instead began to favor online publishing as well as industry-wide conferences such as E3. Nintendo Power explains: "Q: What is Famicom Space World? A: Space World is a free show for the public that follows the one-day Shoshinkai. Gamers who wish to attend need only pick up an entry pass at any official Nintendo retail location in Japan." The systems that have been unveiled at the show series include the Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and 64DD. History Shoshinkai 1989 The first Shoshinkai show was held on July 28, 1989. The Super Famicom was announced and Super Mario Bros. 3 was reportedly shown. Shoshinkai 1990 The second Shoshinkai show was held on August 28-29, 1990. The final version of the Super Famicom was unveiled to the public. Famicom, Super Famicom, and Game Boy games were on display in areas that Nintendo called "Symbolic Zones". Shoshinkai 1991 The third Shoshinkai show was held on April 24 to May 6, 1991. The Super Famicom had been on the market for a few months and a lot of the attention of the fair was dedicated to its video games. Two of them are presented and shine above the others, Final Fantasy IV and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Shoshinkai 1992 The fourth Shoshinkai show was held on August 26, 1992. The Super FX chip was announced. Shoshinkai 1993 The fifth Shoshinkai show was held on August 22, 1993. On August 23, President of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, announced Project Reality, a major strategic partnership with Silicon Graphics for the development of what would become the Nintendo 64. Shoshinkai 1994 The sixth Shoshinkai show was held on November 15-16, 1994. Hiroshi Yamauchi introduced a new portable console called the Virtual Boy, along with its hardware specifications, launch games, and future games. Project Reality's name was changed to "Ultra 64". Shoshinkai 1995 The seventh Shoshinkai show was held on November 22-24, 1995. Popular Mechanics described the scene where "hordes of Japanese schoolkids huddled in the cold outside an exhibition hall in a small town near Tokyo, the electricity of anticipation clearly rippling through their ranks." The show featured the public unveiling of the newly renamed Nintendo 64 console, with thirteen games. This included two playable game prototypes (Super Mario 64 and Kirby Ball 64) and a videotape containing a total of three minutes of very early footage of eleven other Nintendo 64 games. Of all these presented titles, the development of Super Mario 64 was reportedly the most advanced, though only 50 percent complete. Zelda 64 was shown in the form of an abstract technical and thematic demonstration video, where Next Generation magazine said "Well, the fact is that the videotape sequences shown at Shoshinkai bear very little resemblance to what the final product will actually look like. Spectacular scenes of a surprisingly large Link clad in polished armor are most likely to end up in cut-scenes rather than representing the actual play.". Nintendo made its first announcement of the 64DD peripheral, saying it would launch by the end of 1996, though releasing virtually no technical specifications. Shoshinkai 1996 The eighth Shoshinkai show was held on November 22–24, 1996 and was located at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, Japan. New software was shown for the Nintendo 64, Super NES, and Game Boy. This show bore the first demonstration of the 64DD, which IGN reported was one of the biggest items of the show along with first-party titles, while other gaming press said it was kept out of the spotlight and had no meaningful demonstration of its capabilities. Nintendo itself stated that the company was deliberately downplaying the 64DD at the show in order to demonstrate the ongoing commitment to the cartridge format. Nintendo's Director of Corporate Communications, Perrin Kaplan, made the company's first official launch window announcement for 64DD, scheduled for late 1997 in Japan. The 64DD system was shown in its own display booth with the hardware specifications having been finalized, according to Nintendo of America's Chairman Howard Lincoln. The system played an improvised conversion of the Super Mario 64 cartridge game onto a 64DD disk in order to demonstrate the storage device. The booth also demonstrated the process of rendering audience members' photographed faces onto 3D avatars and shapes—a feature which was ultimately incorporated and released in 2000 as Mario Artist: Talent Studio and the Capture Cassette for 64DD. Another 64DD title in development was Creator, a music and animation game by Software Creations, the same UK company that had made Sound Tool for the Nintendo Ultra 64 development kit. They touted the game's ability to be integrated into other games, allowing a player to replace any such game's textures and possibly create new levels and characters. There was no playable version of Creator available at this show, but the project was later absorbed into Mario Artist: Paint Studio (1999). Reportedly several developers attended the show to learn how to develop for 64DD, some having traveled from the US for the 64DD presentation and some having received 64DD development kits. Included in the early roster of committed 64DD developers, Rare officially discounted any rumors of the peripheral's impending pre-release cancellation. N64.com described the presentation of Zelda 64 as "very quick shots on videotape". Yoshi's Island 64 debuted in a short video, and was eventually released as Yoshi's Story. "The biggest surprise" of the show according to IGN and "most impressive peripheral" according to Electronic Gaming Monthly was the Jolting Pak, which would eventually launch as the Rumble Pak in a bundle with the upcoming Star Fox 64, but Next Generation claimed it "was seen as merely another whimsical Nintendo fancy destined to the bin marked Good Idea at the Time." Space World 1997 The ninth show was renamed to Space World, held on November 21-23, 1997. It featured a very early prototype of [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|''Pokémon Gold'' and Silver]], featuring two starting Pokémon who don't appear in the final game, and an early Chikorita. The game would not be completed until 1999, by which point it would have largely changed. George Harrison, the Vice President of Nintendo of America, explained that the presentations made by many third party developers at this show were lackluster because of the unexpected difficulty of the industry's transition from 2D to 3D game development. He described the logistics involved in the launch of the already-delayed 64DD. Space World 1999 Skipping 1998, the tenth show was held on August 27-29, 1999. IGN explained that the 64DD's notoriously repeated launch delays were so significant, and the company's software library was so dependent upon the 64DD's launch, that this would directly cause the skipping of the 1998 Space World. The event had been delayed from 1998 to early 1999 and then again to November 1999, reportedly specifically due to the lack of 64DD launch titles. Paper Mario, EarthBound 64, and many other games were announced and shown. Space World 2000 The eleventh show was held on August 24-26, 2000. A compilation trailer of Nintendo licenses running on GameCube hardware was displayed. Some games revealed then were Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime, Meowth's Party, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Kameo: Elements of Power, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Batman: Vengeance, and the technology demonstrations called Super Mario 128 and ''The Legend of Zelda 128''. Space World 2001 The twelfth show was held on August 24-26, 2001 and was the last Space World consumer event, featuring the upcoming GameCube and recently released Game Boy Advance. A short clip of Super Mario Sunshine was shown in its early form. Some speculated another Space World consumer event would be held in 2005 for the formal unveiling of Nintendo's next console, Revolution (the development name for the Wii). This speculation was incorrect as Nintendo chose to fully reveal at E3 2006, the details of the system which would be renamed to "Wii". However, they did hold an event called Nintendo World 2006 that showcased the Wii and Nintendo DS. Nintendo later held an event called Nintendo World 2011 in Tokyo from the January 8–10, 2011. The company gave the specific details on the Japanese launch of the Nintendo 3DS at this exhibition. See also *E3 *Nintendo Direct References Category:Nintendo Category:Recurring events established in 1989 Category:Video game trade shows